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Could heavy trucks bout be heading for round two?

By: Rick Rouan

The Columbus Dispatch - March 15, 2013 02:49 PM

The fight over whether heavier vehicles should be allowed on state highways could be going to a second round.

Rep. Lynn Wachtmann said Friday that he is working on a new amendment that could be added to the state’s transportation budget bill in a conference committee next week, but some opponents say they are digging in for the battle.

The original proposal was nixed from the bill last week. It would have raised the limit on trucks traveling along state highways from 80,000 pounds to 90,000 pounds. Wachtmann said his new amendment could contain a sharper increase – up to 97,000 pounds – but would require trucks to install a sixth axle.

County engineers are worried heavier trucks could do more damage to roads and bridges.

The County Engineers Association of Ohio said Friday that any increase to the weight allowed on state highways would force it to start over on a federally mandated effort to rate all of the state’s bridges – at a cost of about $45 million.

Association President Fred Pausch said the federal government forced all counties to re-rate the loads that can be carried over bridges after a Minnesota bridge collapsed in 2007. Ohio engineers have rated more than 80 percent of the state’s bridges and expect to be finished with the new ratings in October, Pausch said.

But the Federal Highway Administration has told the organization that an increase to the weight limits would force it to re-rate all of those bridges at heavy expense, Pausch said.

Wachtmann said adding the sixth axle will give trucks more braking power and distribute the added weight more efficiently, alleviating some safety and road degradation concerns.

And does the cost of re-rating the state’s bridges give him any pause at about the amendment?

“Not at all because we’re working through those things to make sure we don’t conflict with federal law,” said Wachtmann, a Republican from Napoleon.